Fabric Buttons

You will need

1. Fabric scraps in the colours and fabric of your choice (I used rainbow coloured satin fabrics for this project)

2. Needle

3. Threads to match the fabrics

4. A pair of scissors

5. A pencil

6. Something like a lid or any circular object to use as a stencil to draw circles. I used a spool of yarn. The circles I drew were about 2 inches in diameter and made balls of about a centimetre.

Take the circular template be it a lid or a bangle or whatever you are using to draw the circle and with a pencil draw on the fabric. It doesn't really matter whether you draw on the printed side or not, as long as you can see the circle.

You could cut the fabric around the circle in a square or any shape so long as you leave atleast a centimetre of fabric around the circle you have drawn.

Thread the needle, tie a knot and begin sewing using a simple running stitch using the drawn circle as a guide. Just remember your final stich should have the need moving out towards the printed or the good side of the fabric

Pull the thread so that the fabric bunches up. You will now have a hollow ball like structure with extra fabric sticking out. You need to push all the extra fabric into the hollow, you may have to loosen the thread a bit to allow you to push the fabric in. Push all the ends into the hollow and pull the thread tight so that the hollow is shut.

Now start compressing the hollow structure into a nice firm sphere. To do this pass the needle between opposite side and pull the thread tight. Do this a couple of times and the flat hollow structure from the previous step will slowly start getting smaller and resembling a ball. You can use your fingers to push the fabric together and pull the thread tight so that you don't have any loose edges. If you find any loose parts sticking out, simple pass the needle though and pull thread so that it is brought tightly towards the ball . Finish by tying a knot and cutting the thread.

Use the balls to decorate the edge of a curtain or a pillow cover or scarf or even as jewellery beads or simply as buttons on an outfit. The possibilities for use are endless. Do go ahead have a ball!